The Cotswolds

Running from Bath in the south-west towards Stratford-upon-Avon in the north-east is a range of rolling hills called the Cotswolds. An area of outstanding natural beauty, the Cotswolds contains some of the prettiest countryside in England. It is characterised by gentle hills where sheep graze, drystone walls, wooded valleys, and small market towns and sleepy villages built of the local honey-coloured limestone.

‘Wold’ means a gentle hill, while a ‘cot’ is a sheep enclosure - reflecting the region’s long association with sheep farming. In the Middle Ages, the wool trade brought great wealth to local landowners, who built many fine manor houses and beautiful churches. The most impressive of these, at Northleach, is so big that it is called the ‘’cathedral of the Cotswolds”.

Long before the churches were built, the Romans were raising their own sheep here. The old straight Roman road, the Fosse Way, still runs through the heart of the Cotswolds, and the area includes, at Chedworth, one of the largest and best preserved Roman villas in England.

Narrow country lanes, old fashioned cottages with roses growing up the walls, and cottage garden plants, a red telephone box and post box. A lot of 'Englishness' is based on nostalgia, and you would not get these things anywhere else in the world. Mary Piercy

Cotswold cottages are touchingly beautiful, and seem so traditional to me as a foreigner.Tatiana Muchnick